In our application Ser. No 129 862 and its parent, identified above, we disclosed and claimed the treatment of humans infected with HTLV-III (AIDS) virus, including clinically diagnosed AIDS and AIDS-related complex (ARC), by the administration at low dosage levels of an essentially pure opiate receptor antagonist, preferably such antagonist having preferential blocking activity for Mu over Delta opiate receptor sites and exhibiting at the contemplated low dosage level a substantially selective blocking activity for Mu over Delta receptor sites, exemplified by naltrexone and naloxone. The patent literature relating to the medical utility proposed at the time for these and related drugs is summarized in the introductory discussion of the earlier application, the complete contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference, and include the treatment of narcotic addiction and narcotic overdose, the relief of severe itching in conjunction with Hodgkins Disease, mycosis funoides, severe jaundice, and various types of pruritis, the treatment of anorexia, the treatment of medical shock; i.e., anaphylactic, burn, cardiac, and the like shock, and the treatment of alcoholism or alcoholic intoxication.
As explained in the prior applications, essentially pure opiate receptor antagonists, exemplified by naltrexone and naloxone, appear to be effective in potentiating the natural human immune system against the HTLV-III (AIDS) virus, apparently by up-regulation of the endorphinergic system to thereby enhance homostatic regulation of the natural immune function of the human body in ways by no means adequately understood. It has now been discovered that surprisingly these drugs are likewise effective for the treatment of certain chronic long-term diseases for which a specific medical treatment has been largely unavailable up to now, and even their etiology is, in a majority of instances, unknown.